Sunday, March 6, 2011

YA, Chocolate and Durian

YA Mafia. I never heard of it until yesterday when I happened to visit Dear Author websites. If you are not sure what is YA Mafia, it sort of a group of YA Author who may I quote from Holly Black blog “a cabal of writers who give one other blurbs, do events with one another, and like each other’s books. Also if you cross them they can ruin your career”

It looks like a threat that is directed more to those reviewers that reviewed their works. I’m not sure whether this group really existed but if they do, it is not healthy at all. The reviews by these independent reviewers are meant for us, the readers. Since we going to spend our money on these books shouldn't we get unbiased reviewed? If the review is bad and they don't like it, they should work harder to produce a better book and not alienate the reviewers. I will feel cheated if I read a review that is based on the friendship and association.

You might be wondering how I choose my book. I normally frequented the following websites, All About Romance, The Romance Reader, Dear Author and few other websites to get the review and the rating. In fact I have been to All About Romance websites since the early 2000s and they have never disappointed me in their reviews and I hardly read reviews on the Amazon.com nor from Goodreads to influence me in my buying. I really hope that the YA Mafia is only rumours.

There is also another "mafia" group that was just established on Sunday Malaysian time. It is known as Chocolate Mafia and the leader is Carolyn Jewel, who called her hero in My Immortal Assassin, Durian. Not Durian the King of fruits but a dangerously sexy demon fiend. I haven’t read this but it is in my TBR pile of books that is still packed in the box in my store room. I will let you know whether the My Immortal Assassin's Durian is as tasty as our King of fruits, Durian once I get the chance to read it. Oh! She also has a cat by the name of Abu.

Heh! I’m not sure how you can join this gang but from what I know you just need to love chocolate and also Durian. But I might be wrong! Okay, gotta go...Salam....